A total of 1,636 children in Cornwall referred to specialist NHS mental health services have been rejected for treatment in the past two years, the NSPCC has revealed.

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said that of 3,784 referrals received in 2015/16, 638 were rejected.

In 2016/17, of 3,434 cases, 998 were rejected.

The NSPCC has released the figures, obtained via a Freedom of Information request to NHS Trusts in England, which found the equivalent of 150 children a day were rejected for treatment between 2015 and 2017 in the UK.

From a total of 652,023 cases referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) across the country, 109,613 children were turned away.

The NSPCC fears the number of young people being dismissed from mental health services could be significantly higher, as one in five of the trusts which responded to the request failed to disclose the number of rejected referrals.

A spokesman for Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: "All referrals that are not eligible for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service are signposted to the most appropriate service where possible.

"Information on advice and support is also provided for referrers to enable them to make a more informed choice.

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"The trust also works in collaboration with Cornwall Council operating an integrated early help hub which is a single point of access. This service offers help and support, signposting children, young people and their parents to the most appropriate service, ensuring they receive the best advice, support and treatment available.

"The Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust works in partnership and has access to a wide range of child mental health support agencies and individuals across Cornwall and beyond."

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recently announced that Cornwall is soon set to get its first specialist psychiatric unit for children.

The children and young people’s mental health unit is set to be built in the grounds of Bodmin Hospital.

Construction company Interserve has been chosen as the contractor which will build the centre.

It will offer 12 beds for children aged between 13 and 18 years with complex and severe mental health issues and will also include accommodation for family and relatives, a crisis café and a recreational sports barn.

A schedule for the works and the opening of the psychiatric ward has also been revealed. Construction will start in the spring and the unit is expected to open in April 2019.

Children as young as ten have contacted Childline with suicidal thoughts

One girl, aged 17, said: "I suffer with anxiety and panic attacks and find it difficult to leave the house. My anxiety has been really bad recently and I feel like I ruined Christmas for everyone because I couldn’t get out of bed.

"I was referred to CAMHS, but I was on a waiting list for eight months and during that time my anxiety got worse so I never went because I was too scared.

"Every day feels impossible and so difficult and I know I need help but the thought of having to sit there and talk openly, having to re-visit old memories and thoughts with a stranger terrifies me. It’s a vicious circle."

The NSPCC is now calling on Government to shift the focus of children and young people’s mental health services towards early intervention, to ensure that young people’s mental health does not have to reach crisis point before they are able to get help.

Mental and emotional health is now the most common reason for a child to contact Childline, with the service carrying out 63,622 counselling sessions in 2016/17.

It also comes weeks after NSPCC research found that 84% of NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups had not demonstrated sufficiently that they were properly planning for the mental health needs of children who have been sexually abused or neglected, affecting an estimated one million children in England.

The charity says findings have also painted a worrying picture of a postcode lottery of waiting times, with the average waiting time ranging between just two days in some areas to more than five and a half months in others; and an average waiting time of eight weeks.

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Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, said: “It is desperately sad to see so many young people facing distress around mental health issues being forced to wait months for assessment by CAMHS, many of whom are then rejected for treatment altogether. This risks leaving them in limbo while their condition potentially reaches crisis point.

“We recognise the hard work of mental health professionals in trying to help young people get their lives back on track. However, too many children who need help are struggling access support and treatment which can help them to recover.

"The Government’s upcoming Green Paper on mental health must urgently evaluate the early support systems available to young people to ensure that no child is left to suffer in silence.”

Previous NSPCC research has found that an increasing demand for services means many young people, including those who have suffered sexual abuse and neglect, do not meet the clinical threshold to access CAMHS and are turned away from treatment.

Early intervention is key to minimising the long-term impact of mental health. Research shows that half of mental health conditions experienced by adults first develop before the age of 15, with three in four cases present by the age of 18.